Rural graduates chart careers in agribusiness banking
A NEW breed of agribusiness banker is in the field, writes CAMILLE SMITH.
IN A Docklands boardroom, all polished wood and marble, six university graduates chat nervously.
Fresh out of degrees in agriculture, commerce and animal science, they are taking part in this year’s ANZ agribusiness graduate program.
Most of them, including 23-year-old Felicity Jones, have grown up on farms and are more comfortable in muddy paddocks than in ANZ’s head office.
“Having a background of sitting round the kitchen table, talking to Mum and Dad about business decisions day to day is very normal,” says Felicity, who is from an Angus cattle property at Kimberley, in north central Tasmania.
“I guess this is kind of flipping the role of where I have been previously.”
During the 18-month program, Felicity will learn to fill the role of “agribusiness assistant relationship manager” — ANZ’s modern term for a bank manager’s assistant.
Felicity will work directly with farm business owners to understand the challenges and opportunities that drive Australia’s agriculture industries, from the Northern Territory’s cattle stations to Tasmania’s aquaculture sector, and everything in between.
She is joined by Mitchell Carmody from Rutherglen, Matthew Johns from Ballarat, George Woods from Boggabilla in NSW, Oliver Venables from Cookernup in WA and Brigette Bain-Jones from Bangalow NSW.
Felicity studied commerce at University of Adelaide and aspires to help family-run farm businesses maximise their potential.
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“When you go talk to clients, you have to understand family because a lot of the businesses we talk to are family-based,” says Felicity, who applied for the program after completing an eight-week summer ANZ internship before her final year of study at Adelaide Uni.
“In the internship, I would go out with the relationship manager, just like at home, sitting round the kitchen table, talking about business, where the direction is going, what needs to be done and who’s going to do it.
“It was an interesting role. It felt very comfortable.”
As with all six of the graduates, Felicity did not study with a view to becoming a banker. The chance to travel, immerse herself in the ag industry and chart an agribusiness career, lured her to finance. From Docklands, she heads to her first six-month placement in a rural branch at Gawler, north of Adelaide, the gateway to the Barossa’s vibrant viticulture industry.
She’s back in the familiar surrounds of agriculture, but out of her comfort zone of cattle and sheep nonetheless.
NEW BREED
ANZ South Australia agribusiness manager Steve Radeski says the program will create a new breed of bank manager who are as well versed in soil and water management as they are on how to tally a balance sheet.
“They will be out on farm from day one,” Mr Radeski says. “They will get a sense of information flow, how we talk to and communicate with the farmer on the ground.
“The first rotation is in their home state, not their home town. The next two rotations will be in geographies and industries in which they have little experience.
“It is important they get a really good sense of management. The capabilities of a property from a physical perspective as well. From soils, to topography, to rainfall, to climate, and how that influences what managers and farmers do.
“Financials by themselves only tell a part of the story. It is not until you understand what is going on on-farm that you get a full appreciation of the business.”
Before banking, Mr Radeski ran farm businesses in the Northern Territory and Queensland. He says the financial sector has come a long way since his days as a new agribusiness manager.
“I learnt by trial and error, which is traditionally the way you did it,” he says. “The intent of this program is to accelerate the career path of these graduates.”
GENERATION NEXT
CURRENT graduate Courteney Kemp, 24, started the program last year and is finishing her final six-month placement at Albury.
“I saw a real need for understanding banking to help my generation,” says Courteney, who grew up on a cattle station in central Queensland and studied agribusiness at uni.
“I could see there are a lot of people in my generation who wanted to get back on farms but just didn’t understand how the banking system worked.
“Now I definitely have an understanding of what the bank looks for, how we assess what is a good deal, what makes good farmers.”
Andrew Gavel, 25, from Condobolin, NSW, finished the grad program in 2016, and has progressed quickly to a relationships credit manager role in ANZ’s specialist agribusiness team, managing multimillion-dollar clients.
Mr Radeski says a strong interest in agriculture is the most important prerequisite for the program.
“Some of our really successful grads have not come from an agribusiness background,” he says. “But they have shown an absolute passion for ag.”’
Agribusiness is the only industry-specific scheme within ANZ’s organisation-wide graduate program.
“We have more good applicants than we do (ag graduate) positions at the moment,” Mr Radeski says. “But, we are looking to double our numbers in the agribusiness program.”
From the editor
MORE needs to be done to excite young people — particularly rural youth — about the huge opportunities in food and fibre, writes CAMILLE SMITH.
Tail to tell in ConnectED mag
COOTAMUNDRA teen Abbey Bailey is spreading the word about the importance of agriculture. Read Abbey’s story in ConnectED, the magazine that puts agriculture education and rural students on the agenda.